UN scientists say human-induced global warming will likely make extreme weather more common across the world this century.

The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in a report released on November 18 that an increase in heat waves this century was almost certain, while heavier rainfall, more floods, and more intense droughts were likely as the Earth's climate warms.

Released 10 days ahead of international climate talks in Durban, South Africa, the report is the UN's first major look at global warming's impact on weather extremes and how best to manage them.

The risks posed by increasingly erratic weather have been highlighted in recent years by devastating floods in Pakistan and Thailand, the unprecedented 2010 heat wave in Russia, and other events that have led to displacement of people and food shortages.

Most scientists say existing pledges to curb greenhouse-gas emissions are not enough to prevent the planet from heating up beyond the dangerous threshold of another two degrees Celsius.